[QUOTE=Gorbag;1087014]And your point exactly? Even if it should turn out to be correct what you are saying, then everything for sure boils dpwn to calorie imput versus expenditure, and that's mean in this context that if your meals and grazing inputs are larger than you burn by activities, then you will gain weight, and if that's what you are shooting for, then go for it![/quote]

I'm not arguing FOR grazing by any means. I'm arguing that telling people that they need to burn more calories than they expend in order to lose weight is like telling someone about octane molecules when they want to know why their car is getting 5mpg. Yes, that's the mechanism by which weight is lost, but the variables are interdependent, and your earlier statement was useless at best.

[quote=Gorbag;1087014]And yep, right now I am "grazing" on my usual CokeZero and lime juice, less than 20 calories to keep hunger at bay compared to your 500 calories + bulletproof...:p[/QUOTE]

Uh-huh. If someone is able to remain satiated for 8 hours or more because they ingested 500 kCal of healthy fats, that's far worse for their health than sipping on some lime-flavored chemical concoction all day. Great argument.

02-07-2013, 11:32 AM

JoanieL

I think of grazing or snacking as something for growing people - children and people trying to gain weight, whether muscle or to recover from illness.

As far as CICO, I haven't read anything that convinces me that [I]over time[/I], the time of day one eats is that big of a factor for the average person. It might be different for athletes. But logically, to me, it's either CICO, or it isn't.

We're all different. If grazing keeps you sated and you're not gaining fat, then it's good for you. I would never feel satisfied eating lots of small meals, so a big honkin' supper with little else throughout the day is good for me.

02-07-2013, 12:08 PM

RichMahogany

[QUOTE=JoanieL;1087214]As far as CICO, I haven't read anything that convinces me that [I]over time[/I], the time of day one eats is that big of a factor for the average person. It might be different for athletes. But logically, to me, it's either CICO, or it isn't.[/QUOTE]

There's absolutely 0 debate as to whether the mechanism for weight loss or weight gain is a differential between energy input and output.

The question is whether the amount and type of input influences the output and vice versa. Anyone who says "Just eat less and exercise more" ignores this very well-demonstrated fact.

To quote someone much smarter than me:[quote=Peter Attia] "Do Calories Matter? In a word, yes. But, technically this is the wrong question. The correct question is probably closer to, “What is the impact of the calories I consume on my body’s ability to store fat versus burn fat?”[/quote]

[quote=Peter Attia]Conventional wisdom, perhaps better referred to as Current Dogma, says that you gain weight because you eat more than you expend. This is almost true! To be 100% true, it would read: when you gain weight, it is the case that you have necessarily eaten more than you expended. Do you see the difference? It’s subtle but very important — arguably more important than any other sentence I will write. The first statement says over-eating caused you to get fat. The second one says if you got fat, you overate, but the possibility remains that another factor led to you to overeat.[/quote]

[quote=Peter Attia]What you eat actually changes how you expend energy. Similarly, how you expend energy changes what (and how) you eat. To be even more nuanced, what you eat further impacts what you subsequently eat. As you increase (or decrease) in size, this impacts how you expend energy.[/quote]

[quote=Peter Attia]Obesity is a growth disorder just like any other growth disorder. Specifically, obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation. Fat accumulation is determined not by the balance of calories consumed and expended but by the effect of specific nutrients on the hormonal regulation of fat metabolism. Obesity is a condition where the body prioritizes the storage of fat rather than the utilization of fat.[/quote]

I also think grazing is natural to many of us. Perhaps you could plan out 3 good meals but eat them in 5-7 meals.

02-07-2013, 12:23 PM

RichMahogany

To answer the original question instead of debating the value of trying to control CICO math with Gorbag:

I think grazing is a [B][U]really[/B][/U] good candidate for a contributing factor to metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. I graze sometimes on a weekend, or at a party, or whatever, but I would refrain from doing it as an every day thing.

02-07-2013, 12:36 PM

Drumroll

By constantly imputing food into your body you don't really give your digestive system a chance to rest and recharge as it were. I am a fan of the following analogy to explain this:

It's kind of like the battery phenomenon for electronic devices. If you keep the device (yourself) constantly charged (ie constantly filled with food), then you actually degrade the amount of charge the battery (your digestive system) can hold for you. The battery (your digestive system) needs to be used to power your device (you) without being plugged in at least occasionally, and even let to rest without being plugged in (fed) from time to time.

Not that you need to do this ALL the time, but recharge periods where you allow your digestive system to rest are a good idea. See Mark's series on fasting for more info about this.

02-07-2013, 02:54 PM

Graycat

For [B]me[/B] grazing leads to increased appetite, increased cravings and eventually weight gain.

It wasn't till I cut down to 1 or 2 larger daily meals, that I was finally able to lose 30+ lbs. and reach what I consider to be pretty much my goal weight and body composition.

But if a person is able to have reasonable caloric intake with 6 or 7 small meals, then they will probably be okay. Me, not so much.

02-07-2013, 03:19 PM

Gorbag

Grazing is not god or bad by itself, it all depends on the total context of your diet. Many people, me included, can skip an early breakfast and graze on a few raw vegetables, a piece of low fat cheese when hungry and later eating a larger dinner, without being in danger of getting the metabolic syndrom or whatever. Grazing may work or not work, even for weightloss, but it also depends on various parameter, like the rest of the diet, what you are grazing on and how much, and also the individual. If grazing on a handful of raw broccoli makes you go binging, well then maybe grazing is not for you anyway...